Woke Silicon Valley Bank donated over $73 million to Black Lives Matter-related social justice groups in the years leading up to its collapse, while the failed Signature Bank donated $850,000, it turns out.
A database from the conservative Claremont Institute shows that SVB has donated approximately $73,450,000 to the movement and other social justice causes as it worked to improve its environmental, social and governance scores.
Meanwhile, New York-based Signature Bank donated a total of $850,000 over several years before failing on Sunday.
It’s unclear how the banks’ donations were spent – but the Claremont Institute claimed Global Network, a private BLM organization, uses its money to fund Black Lives Matter demonstrations and contributed to the organization’s political action committee focused on choosing progressive leaders.
The revelation comes as banks are being mocked for being too awake and not paying enough attention to the red flags in their businesses.
Silicon Valley Bank has donated a whopping $73 million to Black Lives Matter in recent years, it has been revealed
New York-based Signature Bank has donated a total of $850,000 to BLM over the years
The funds may have been used to pay for further Black Lives Matter demonstrations
Both banks had touted their efforts to improve employee diversity and address social issues.
In the summer of 2020, Silicon Valley Bank pledged to increase its commitment to “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.”
And in a report at the time, CEO Greg Becker said SVB had an employee-matching program for donations that focused on “pandemic response, social justice, sustainability and support for women, emerging Black and Latino talent and other underrepresented groups.”
The company’s 2021 proxy statement to investors also said, “Calls to end systemic racism and social inequalities following the death of George Floyd in May 2020 have had a profound global impact.
“We have responded by expanding opportunities for dialogue, including organizing over 40 small-group discussion circles where over two-thirds of our employees participated in discussions of racial justice issues.
“Additionally, we created opportunities for action and mobilized our employees and customers to mobilize for community service through Tech Gives Back, a week of volunteer events focusing in part on racial justice, social justice and access to the innovation economy. ”
At the same time, Signature Bank executives noted in their 2021 Social Impact Report that approximately 2,200 employees had given to a variety of organizations and 431 individual grants totaling $1.86 million went to nonprofit organizations.
The report states: “Corporate donations are an integral part of Signature Bank’s corporate citizenship, and the bank’s commitment to supporting universal social causes is matched only by the bank’s size, strength and position within the corporate community, the national economy and of global society grow.
“Signature makes unrestricted grants to numerous nonprofit organizations each year and funds specific activities and initiatives for many others.
“With our increased focus on social impact, including human capital, diversity, equity and inclusion practices, along with strategies to support and nurture community engagement and our approach to sustainability efforts as individuals and as an institution, the Bank will continue to strengthen its governance in these areas.’
A Black Lives Matter protester is seen here carrying a sign in front of a group calling for Kim Potter’s parole release in February 2022
The Black Lives Matter movement expanded after the death of George Floyd in 2020
What the funds specifically donated by Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were used for is unclear.
But in an op-ed for Newsweek, Claremont Institute executives claimed that Global Network, a private BLM organization, is using its money to “support future operations, buy luxury real estate, engage in nepotism, pay out grants to dozens of BLM chapters and revolutionary organizations and running a PAC to elect “progressive working-class community leaders, activists and candidates fighting for black liberation.”
Local BLM chapters, it said, are also spending “millions on activism and initiatives to defund police departments” and “BLM At Schools indoctrinates children across the country in critical race theory and teaches them, themselves, their peers, and their country.” to hate.”
“Meanwhile, banks are issuing billions of dollars in subprime loans “to end systemic racism,” and corporations are funding left-wing bailout funds that are releasing violent rioters and criminals onto our streets and working together to create radicalized, anti-meritocratic hiring programs,” Claremont Institute Claims without naming SVB and signature bank directly.
It concludes: “This redistribution of corporate assets – assets rightfully owned by shareholders, including retirees and retirees, which should have been paid as dividends or used for share buybacks – is historic and can be viewed as a form of reparations self-proclaimed enemies of the American nation and way of life.
“And this wealth transfer is unthinkable without BLM.”
has reached out to Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Black Lives Matter for comment.